Maintenance for Station Crew

(NASA) – The Expedition 23 crew members aboard the International Space Station were busy Friday with a variety of maintenance activities after the departure and landing of Expedition 22 crew members Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev.

Williams and Suraev returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft Thursday, landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Staying behind aboard the station are Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer and new Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov. Expedition 23 officially began its increment when Williams and Suraev undocked from the Poisk Mini-Research Module. The trio, who will stay until June, joined Williams and Suraev after arriving in their Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft in December 2009.

Joining Expedition 23 and expanding the station crew to six will be Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko. They are scheduled to arrive in the Soyuz TMA-18 on April 4.

Aboard the station, Noguchi and Creamer performed maintenance on the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT, one of the station’s treadmills. COLBERT is an integral part of the exercise equipment aboard the orbital outpost.

Kotov worked in the Russian segment of the station, maintaining and monitoring its systems.

Over the weekend, the three crew members will complete their daily physical exercise routines to counteract the effects of long-term exposure to weightlessness in space. They also will enjoy some off-duty time, continue regular maintenance duties and have an opportunity to speak with family members.